Participant-experimenter rapport in experimental settings: A test case of executive functions among children with ADHD

There is a growing interest in the effects of social engagement on cognition, yet, research on the effects of social engagement with the experimenter in empirical contexts has been sparse. During an experiment, the experimenter and participant form a dyad, establishing a certain level of rapport-a sense of a positive and congruent relationship. This rapport is thought to promote performance by providing a comfortable testing environment, thereby reducing resource demand, and enhancing participant engagement and willingness to exert effort to perform. The current study sought to better understand the role of rapport by examining the effects of perceived rapport on effortful control, that is, inhibition and shifting, in an experimental setting among children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-nine children (9 to 12 years old) were divided into two groups based on ADHD classification (i.e., typically developing children, n = 27; children with ADHD, n = 22). Participants completed the day/night Stroop task and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task following a short rapport-building conversation with the experimenter. Later, both participant and experimenter filled the CHARM questionnaire reporting the rapport constructed during the experiment. Results show moderating effects of ADHD on the relationship between perceived rapport quality and congruency, and participant's executive functions performance. Specifically, children with ADHD showed higher susceptibility to rapport quality and were impervious to the effects of rapport congruency. Results highlight the importance of rapport with the experimenter in experimental research and suggest incorporating considerations concerning rapport, both in designing the experimental paradigm as well as an independent factor affecting task performance and outcome.